Democrats cheered the return of a pumped-up president and scored Tuesday night's debate a clear victory for Barack Obama.

Republicans conceded the president performed better than in his first debate with Mitt Romney, but rated the outcome a draw or narrow victory for Romney and found fault with the moderator.

So went the Wednesday-morning quarterbacking among the region's political activists, who were glued to the combative exchanges between Romney and Obama but had sharply different impressions of the outcome, depending on their party.

"Every Democrat I spoke to was happy about it," declared Ulster County Democratic Chairman Frank Cardinale, who applauded Obama for "calling out" Romney for what he saw as contradictions or a lack of specifics. "There was no doubt in my mind that he came out on top on this," he said.

Republicans disagreed, granting Obama points for style only and giving Romney the edge on substance.

And most groused about CNN's Candy Crowley's performance as moderator — much as Democrats complained about Jim Lehrer's steering of the first presidential debate.

But they seemed to disagree about whether Crowley had done too much or too little.

Among those who wished for tighter control of the candidates were Deerpark Republican Chairman David Hoovler, who called the encounter "more of an argument than a debate," and Chester GOP Chairman Steve Neuhaus, who observed that "whoever wouldn't shut up would win the argument."

"I think it did more to confuse voters than it did to make up their minds," he said.

Yet Town of Newburgh Republican Chairman Leigh Benton found Crowley too intrusive as moderator. "You're really not supposed to notice them as much as last night you noticed her," he said.

Democrats had no such objections, although some wished Crowley had reined in Romney more often. "He just wanted to talk over the moderator," said Sonia Ayala, co-chairman of Blooming Grove's Democratic Committee. Democrats pointed to the discussion of the Sept. 11 killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans as a significant moment in the debate. They praised Obama for calling it offensive that Republicans had accused the administration of being lax on diplomatic security. They thought that stern statement, along with a dramatic exchange about when the White House attributed the attack to terrorists, had taken the steam out of the Republican charges.

"I think Obama clearly put an end to it," said Betty Ann Yarus, chairwoman of the New Windsor Democratic Committee.

Republicans didn't see the exchange as a big score for Obama and denied that it had settled the issue.